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10DoO #7 – The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

This movie wasn’t nominated for best picture, so what is it doing here? Well, as you might notice, this feature is called 10 Days of Oscar, and we should review 10 movies, but since there are only 9 nominees for best picture, one space is left for reviewing an extra movie, so I pick the movie with most nominations that isn’t nominated for best picture, and this year there was two that could fit the bill, both with three Oscar nominations, one was ‘Blue Jasmine’ (2013) and the other was this one, and since I’m doing Woody Allen Year (will come back, I swear) and the movie will be eventually reviewed, I was left with this one, so let’s work it out. It’s weird to review a movie that is a sequel when you haven’t reviewed the original movie, that would be ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ (2012) that should have its own review in the months to come, but right now as it is, it shouldn’t pose as a problem to do this without the previous information, as I’d prefer to take a look at the entire trilogy as a movie on itself, all of them one after the other. For me at least, there’s been no problem with the films themselves, I rate both a 10/10 so far, and I wait for the next one to have a full review of the whole experience. So, for now, a few notes:

· Yay, they kept Beorn, I liked the chapter of Beorn in the original book and the mysterious character that he is, and they maintain that.

· I adore the travels of Gandalf as a parallel narrative, and the appeareance of Sauron was unexpectedly amazing.

· The spiders, and how they talk, is maybe one of the most interesting additions to a mythology of Tolkien in a long time.

· As always, Peter Jackson includes or augments the role of the women in the films he directs, I love him for that, he seems to be one of the only directors to make great roles for women right now.

· The barrel sequence was the most fun I had in theaters last year, I laughed and I was thrilled all the way through.

· Smaug was amazing, one of the best scenes of the year, the coins, the animation, the voice, the chase and the fight, while unnecesary to some, was kept at the height of the action all the time.

· The cliffhanger was impressively placed, and I can’t wait for the next movie, I wish I could see the conclusion right now!

· The hate of some people for these new movies seem to be incredible to me, they just seem to hate the new stuff, or just the fact that it’s new, I hate them for that.

Amicus Productions: Horror-Scifi

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
The Skull (1965)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
The Psychopath (1966)
Dalek's Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)
The Terrornauts (1967)
The Deadly Bees (1967)
They Came from Beyond Space (1967)
Torture Garden (1967)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970)
The House That Dripped Blood (1971)
I, Monster (1971)
Tales from the Crypt (1972)
What Became of Jack and Jill? (1972)Asylum (1972)
The Vault of Horror (1973)-- And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973)
From Beyond the Grave (1974)
Madhouse (1974)
The Beast Must Die (1974)
The Land That Time Forgot (1975)
At the Earth's Core (1976)
The People That Time Forgot (1977)
The Monster Club (1981)

Hammer Pictures: Horror-Fantasy-Sci Fi

The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935)
Man in Black (1949)
Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949)
Dick Barton at Bay (1950)
Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Spaceways (1953)
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
X: The Unknown (1956)The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Quatermass 2 (1957)
The Abominable Snowman (1957)
Tales of Frankenstein (1958)Dracula (1958)The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
The Mummy (1959)
The Stranglers of Bombay (1960)The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960)
The Terror of the Tongs (1961)
Taste of Fear (1961)
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Shadow of the Cat (1961)
Captain Clegg (1962)
The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Paranoiac (1963)
The Damned (1963)
Maniac (1963)
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
The Old Dark House (1963)
Nightmare (1964)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
The Gorgon (1964)
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)
Fanatic (1965)
She (1965)
The Nanny (1965)
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
The Reptile (1966)
Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966)
The Witches (1966)
One Million Years B.C. (1966)
Slave Girls (1967)
The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Journey to Midnight (1968)
Journey into Darkness (1968)
The Vengeance of She (1968)
The Lost Continent (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
"Journey to the Unknown" (1968)Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed (1969)
Moon Zero Two (1969)Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
Crescendo (1970)
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)
The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)Scars of Dracula (1970)
Lust for a Vampire (1971)
Countess Dracula (1971)
Creatures the World Forgot (1971)
Twins of Evil (1971)
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971)
Hands of the Ripper (1971)
Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971)
Vampire Circus (1972)Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
Straight on Till Morning (1972)
Fear in the Night (1972)
Demons of the Mind (1972)The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)
Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974)The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
"Hammer House of Horror" (1980)
"Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense" (1984)
Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (1984)
Beyond the Rave (2008)
Let Me In (2010)The Resident (2011)